Pages

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Southern Nut Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Fruit cake is a misunderstood confection. While we love it, most of our guests move it around their plates or hide it under napkins when they don't think we are looking. If your first bite of fruit cake was a disaster, chances are I'll never be able to convince you of its merits. That's a shame because a well aged fruit cake is a wondrous mix of jeweled and drunken fruit suspended in a spare but flavorful batter. In order to please our guests I periodically seek out recipes for Christmas cakes and puddings that might have more universal appeal. This year I decided to try Maida Heatter's Southern Nut Cake. I'm happy to report it is a lovely cake and it has been well received by those who've tried it. I thought the cake was dry when I first sampled it, so I wrapped it in brandy soaked cheese cloth and let it sit for several days before serving. That did the trick. If you are looking for a fruitless fruit cake, you'll love this nut extravaganza. While it is expensive to make, it's easy to do and would make a marvelous addition to your Christmas table. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 pound toasted walnuts, broken in large pieces
1 pound toasted pecans, broken in large pieces
3-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons double acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon mace
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup brandy or bourbon, divided use
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
Directions:
1) Move an oven rack to lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 10 x 4-inch tube pan. Line bottom with parchment paper. Butter paper and dust pan with fine dried bread crumbs. Set aside.
2) Place walnuts and pecans into a very large mixing bowl or roasting pan.
3) Combine flour, baking powder, mace and salt in another bowl. Whisk to combine.
4) Combine milk and 1/4 cup brandy or bourbon in another bowl. Set aside.
5) Cream butter in large bowl of an electric mixer. Add sugar and beat at moderate speed for two or three minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating each until incorporated. Increase speed and beat until light and fluffy.
6) On low speed alternately add flour mixture in three additions and milk mixture in two, beating only until smooth after each addition. Pour batter over nuts and mix with your hands or a wooden spoon until nuts are coated with batter. Turn batter into prepared pan, smoothing top to even.
7) Bake for 1-3/4 hours or until cake tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Transfer cake to a cooling rack. While cake is still hot brush top with reserved 1/4 cup brandy or bourbon. Let cake cool in pan for 20 minutes. Cover cake with a cooling rack and invert to remove paper. Invert again and cool in upright position. Let cake age for 24 hours before serving. Yield: 16 servings.

I made something similar -- only in miniature (in the wee cupcake pans). Mine has bourbon soaked golden raisins in it as well and on the prairie, we always use pecans. And I decorated each "bite" with a candied cherry. Although the recipe name was "individual nut cakes", I changed it to bourbon bites because of the quantity of bourbon in it! The bites are especially good with a wee bit of bourbon added after baking!

I'm a fruitcake devotee -- but it has to be a good fruitcake (boughten, not made -- we love the Corsicana, Texas ones).

Thank you Mary for posting this lovely nut cake. Yours looks delicious. Mother made her famous fruit cake again yeaterday. She made a batch a few weeks ago and it is gone! It is a lovely mix of fruit, nuts and more cake than usual for a fruit cake and we love it. We do not soak in liquer as she is opposed to this but I must say it does get better as it sits and ages.Happy Holidays to you and your family.

fruitcake gets the bad rap from those awful candied things they sell in the grocery... My sainted aunt could make a fruitcake everyone loved (it was a right of passage that the kids could have a slice when we turned 18 only... Now I know it was just a way to limit the supply to the adults, and not waste it on the youth).

WOW!!! I love this recipe, I'm really not a fruitcake lover and this WONDERFUL!!! recipe doesn't have all the candied fruit and that's the part I don't like. I nuts are my favorite part and this has lots of those. Like always Mary, THANKS!!! for the AWESOME!!! recipe.Geri

I would love to have a slice of this cake along with my morning coffee! I love fruitcake. My Mom always made a light fruitcake that was sort of a poundcake with fruit and nuts. I prefer the dark fruitcake with lots of everything in it! Heck, I even like the store-bought ones in the tin!

I am not big into dried fruits in my cake bread or cookies. So unfortunately, I am not a big fan of fruit cake. I do like pannetone and stollen though- but prefer it without the citron. A few specks here and there is okay but no major domination. And I whole heartedly agree that the walnuts have a huge appeal for me. Looks amazing.

Privacy Policy

This blog does not share personal information with third-parties nor does it store information about your visit for use other than to analyze content performance through the use of cookies, which you can turn off at anytime by modifying your Internet browser's settings. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a a users prior visits to this website. Google's use of the DoubleClick cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads. This blog is not responsible for the republishing of the content found here on other Web sites or media without the owners permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice